Former university employees allege stalking never reported to campus police

A former New Mexico State University-Alamogordo police officer and security guard allege that a university official told security personnel not to alert the campus police officer about the stalking of a student by a professor in September 2013.

NMSU-A's safety and security manual dictates that personnel immediately contact police in the event of a rape, criminal assault or stalking incident.

The professor, who the Daily News did not name because he has not been charged with a crime, declined to comment about the allegations.

NMSU-A President Cheri Jimeno said the professor no longer works at the university.

The professor still has a voice mail and a biography page on the university website, but is not listed as a teacher on any classes for the fall semester.

Former NMSU-A security guard Randy Hayek, who retired in November, said he suffered retaliation for telling the school resource officer, David Moon, about the alleged stalking.

Moon declined to comment for this story.

Hayek said he and another security officer were asked to escort a student to her vehicle at night at a specific time but were told specifically not to tell Moon about it, that it would be handled "in house."

"Well I got to thinking 'wait a minute. If this is true, this is a criminal act,'" he said. "Our campus police officer certainly should know what's going on."

Hayek said he mentioned the incident to Moon, who looked into the issue and found out the identity of the professor.

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"When he looked into it a little bit further himself, my impression was that it wasn't the first time," Hayek said. "Everybody at the school was real 'hush-hush.' They didn't want anybody to know about this."

According to an Alamogordo Police Department internal affairs investigation of Moon, another university employee also said he had been told "not to say anything to anybody and that they were going to handle it within the department."

The employee told an internal affairs investigator that he felt the alleged stalking incident should have been brought to the attention of law enforcement immediately because of training staff had received, according to police records.

The employee, who no longer works at the university, also said in a police report that he was told not to inform officer Moon about the stalking incident.

Phone calls to the former employee were never returned.

Moon states in an Alamogordo Police Department offense report that he was contacted on October 3, 2013 by New Mexico State University Police about his investigation into the matter.

He states in the report that he was made aware of the alleged stalking on Sept. 25, 2013 by campus security officers.

According to the police report, NMSU-A Facilities Manager Nancy Montgomery allegedly told two security officers to escort a now 20-year-old woman to her car after class but not to inform Moon about the incident, according to the report.

Montgomery said the allegations are untrue but declined to comment further.

"That's completely a false statement," Montgomery said. She also denied retaliating against anyone.

According to the police report, Montgomery allegedly told Moon that the victim had inquired about NMSU-A issuing a restraining order against the professor and that the victim was encouraged to contact police.

The alleged victim, who couldn't be reached for comment, told security officers that a 60-year-old professor was stalking her and following her around off campus, the police report shows.

During an interview, the alleged victim said that she had withdrawn from school because of the "harassment and stalking," according to the report.

The alleged victim told police the professor would follow her home, drive past her home slowly and ask her to go mountain biking with him and tried to get her to enter a university van he was driving, the report shows.

The woman said she had reported the stalking to the university, according to the report.

Several witnesses told police that the professor had come into the alleged victim's place of employment looking for her at various times, the report shows.

According to the report, a second woman alleged that she was harassed by the professor, saying that he drove past her job. The second woman reported two other women who said they had been harassed or stalked by the professor.

One of the women told police that she was afraid to report the professor because she feared he would fail her in his class, the report shows.

Moon was later fired by the city for allegedly taking an old Coke cooler from campus and selling it.

He is appealing his termination and alleges in 12th Judicial District Court records that the university retaliated against him for investigating the stalking against the wishes of university officials.

Jimeno declined to comment on the retaliation allegations.

New Mexico State University Police Department Lt. Lyn Hodges said NMSU-Las Cruces campus police assisted with the investigation into the professor. Hodges said there were reports of alleged stalking by the professor going back as far as 1999 but no charges have ever been filed against him.

Alamogordo Police Department Detective Lt. Roger Schoolcraft said Alamogordo police have investigated the professor in the past but were not currently doing so.

Hodges and Schoolcraft said the findings of the investigations were forwarded on to the district attorney.

Twelfth Judicial Chief Deputy District Attorney David Ceballes said his office did not have an open file on the professor.

"Since we are aware that there are inquiries about this, we will make a request to the Alamogordo Police Department for any and all reports related to this individual," Ceballes said.

Jimeno said the university always takes any stalking reports seriously and it is worked through "the system." "We always have a formal investigation," Jimeno said. "That went through a formal investigation within the system."

She said NMSU-A always tries to work closely with the Alamogordo Police Department but said the incident "might not have even happened in Alamogordo."

According to Moon's report, he did travel to Cloudcroft to speak with one victim, who said the professor had driven slowly past her house numerous times.

Jimeno added that the stalking incident would have been reported to NMSU-Las Cruces campus police, but added that it "sometimes takes a while."

She said she did not know when NMSU-Las Cruces police were contacted, but records show Moon was contacted by NMSU-Las Cruces police about a week after he found out about the incident.

"We try to do it right away," Jimeno said. "We don't always hear about it right away. We don't hear about it until a student comes into our area and tells us."

She said she didn't know anything about the allegations that security personnel were told not to report the stalking to Moon.

"I have no information on that at all," Jimeno said. She later added, "I don't believe officer Moon was involved in that at all."

When asked if Moon was informed of the incident she said there were a "variety of issues that may or may not include the school resource officer, but realistically it's always handled through the system."

"I have no idea of when ... we let officer Moon know or not know," she said. "We don't ignore these types of things."